Design education is an area that is under-represented in the design media, despite its importance. While it’s certainly possible to build a design career without a university degree, the impact the courses have on the next generations of designers is huge. At Umeå Institute of Design in Sweden, the quality of teaching is particularly high. The academy focuses on dialogue, describing engagement with people and the world at the core of its philosophy, training students to be open-minded about conceptual ideas, yet maintain detailed and realistic design solutions.
This June, the students across the street Advanced product design, interaction design, transportation design, and Industrial Design presented their thesis projects: design solutions to problem solving, based on user research, materials thinking and connecting the dots. In this article, we present 5 highlighted projects, all of which attempt to solve a specific contemporary issue through deep analysis and forward thinking.
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Beosound Tableau © Mårten Malmnäs
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Land Rover 365 © Josephine Samuelsson Wahl
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Bloom © Pierre Brand
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Beosound Tableau © Mårten Malmnäs
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Tailion © Nicolò Vincenzi
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Bloom © Pierre Brand
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Umbría © Yishun Dai
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Land Rover 365 © Josephine Samuelsson Wahl
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Bloom © Pierre Brand
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Tailion © Nicolò Vincenzi
Umea Institute of Design 2026: Umbría © Yishun Dai
Alumni of Umeå Design Institute:
Tailion by Nicolò Vincenzi
Niccolo VincenziHis curriculum begins with an industrial problem: mining productivity has soared, in part because obtaining a “Social License to Operate” has become complicated. Vincenzi’s research, done in collaboration with Epirocfound that while developers have put effort into the mining side of the business, mine closure and rehabilitation has been relatively untouched.
Tailion is an autonomous auger vehicle built to operate directly on waste tanks, sludge tanks, which are dangerous and complicated to clean. Tailion is built as a modular system covering monitoring, maintenance and re-export from a supervised node. By removing people from the workplace, risk is reduced and what is currently an environmental liability can become a source of recoverable material.
Bloom by Pierre Brand
In an average class of 20 children, about 3 will have dyslexia. Pierre Brand decided to tackle this widespread issue, focusing particularly on the ages between 6 and 9, as this is when the foundations of reading and writing are laid. Brand researched multisensory literacy learning, which showed touch as an underutilized channel.
Bloom, developed with Logitechanswers the question with a toolbox: Cue for audio sequencing and reading pace, Crayon for handwriting, and an E-Ink Slate that adjusts between exercises. The purpose is not to replace a teacher or therapist, but to provide additional aids that facilitate children by making the invisible mechanics of literacy tangible.
Land Rover 365 by Josephine Samuelsson Wahl
Josephine Samuelsson Wahl’s work is built around a specific gap in mountain emergency response: helicopters and ambulances cannot be used in every medical emergency, and often medical teams cannot reach the patient. Developed with Land Rover and Västerbotten regionthe project creates a new vehicle designed to reach all mountainous areas.
The result is an off-road rescue vehicle with a wheel system that reshapes from circular to triangular track geometry, tuned to protect a stretcher patient from impact. Inside, the stretcher has doctor access on both sides and a pop-up roof to extend the interior height, allowing a doctor to stand and work.
Beosound Tableau by Mårten Malmnäs
Mårten MalmnäsThe project, from Umeå Institute of Design’s Advanced Product Design course, looks at everyday products instead. His research questions the relationships between stillness, domesticity and technology, focusing particularly on sound, as what was a physical, tactile ritual is now reduced to the same screen that also provides email and constant notifications.
Work with Bang & OlufsenMalmnäs developed a wall-mounted sound object that functions as a shelter, an object to gather with friends and family. Rather than being navigated by a screen, the device navigates through sound, believing that the most honest interface for a musical object is the music itself.
Umbría by Yishun Dai
Yishun Dai’s project begins with alarming data about climate change: by the 2030s, regions such as Andalusia will suffer from extreme heat, making it unsafe to leave a sealed car parked in the sun for even a few minutes. The current solution is air conditioning, but it’s also part of the problem, as more cooling requires more emissions, which lead to more heat.
Umbría redefines the vehicle cabin as small mobile building: an exoskeleton thermal frame that activates stack ventilation, a retractable solar chimney, smart materials and a hammock seating configuration. By using passive thermal management principles, the air conditioning workload will be reduced to a minimum, for a fresher and more sustainable future.
